I am slighlty annoyed by the continous nagging of the community, opening an OP thread for every new card/ trendy card and keep ****. I am positive that 80% of the OP threads could be transfered into discussions about deck design, counters and issues of card avaibility.

Therefore I was very happy to see the Falkow Pike Thread of Peralisc. I belive it can be very healthy for our community if we try to give constructive ideas to deck design and highlighting underused good cards.In tradition of Pera's thread I would like to draw the attention of the community to an other intresting gowen card, that had been released in set 11 and despite being avaible for most people, being seriously underplayed:

Ruin Explorer/ Russel

Russel is a rather nontraditional gowen card, reflecting the evolution of gowen getting more and more control oriented cards. Thus one could argue he is a typical falkow card, and brings issues with himself which usually just matter falkow players but not gowen ones:- low survivability thus requiring a good field presence to protect him - not being allround like typical gowen card but specialised for certain situations and sp inefficient -> thus you start to think more about file space when having him and thinking about not running 3 copies (typical falkow issues)(PS: the rank up helps with these issues a little though)

The strengh of this card is, he hard counters many of old and new threats in game:-the complete agimanipulation of falkow (undine and slyph feels useless now)-the attack manitulations in gowen lawtia and refess- capable to set up agi dependent souls like raste

I think he lacks companions.The ago debuff is only good in decks that have ago buffs on start skill, see mage knight which is in falkow.You could use him in a deck with high who gowen units, but at that point you might not need him anyway.

The attack rebuff could go with rivera, but he is 2 agi so not sure I'd want him in that deck.

Actionskill is bad. Why does it need to drain sphere level. :/

He needs units to synergize with inside gowen and a 0 cost on his actionskill.Also he is Lv 3?

Good thread! just curious how does he work with rank up units? Say knight apprentice- do they keep their rank up stats or do they get taken back to lv 2? If not i might try using this guy in my rank up UD file for fun.

Start skill is quite good in the right file. Helps to mitigate somewhat the things angelspawns was referring to in his thread.

It would be nice to highlight a card of handful of cards that are underused that have some weird synergy.

Cheers,AD

Nought's had, all's spent, Where our desire is got without content;'Tis safer to be that which we destroy Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.

Peralisc9001 wrote:You forgot to mention in what deck you intend to use him in.

I think he lacks companions.The ago debuff is only good in decks that have ago buffs on start skill, see mage knight which is in falkow.You could use him in a deck with high who gowen units, but at that point you might not need him anyway.

The attack rebuff could go with rivera, but he is 2 agi so not sure I'd want him in that deck.

Actionskill is bad. Why does it need to drain sphere level. :/

He needs units to synergize with inside gowen and a 0 cost on his actionskill.Also he is Lv 3?

Bad card design.

Pera, gowen is not a field oriented sphere like falkow or refess. It is full of standalone units that can tank, deal damage. and do something special the same time. I can understand that you dont see this clear if you play refess and watching gowen struggling against walls. You dont need synergy that hard in gowen .. So you can just splash him in any gowen rush and let the rest do its thing while he debuffs your enemy and contributes a bit to the dmg from backrow.and the low agi is especially good with debuff startskill. In fact you could even complain why is it not agi 1 or 0 (he still cannot manage metia, but at least gets mermaid transformation).guess the action skill is a backdraw though, unless you have him alive endgame. And its not like you are forced to use that skill anyway .Think about him like a diondora in backrow (rng3) protected by other units in the front.

at AD. This is a good point. I have no idea how he deals with rankup. If he debuffs it that would be pretty contraproductive. Yet then he would also would debuff himself, so I doubt he touch those stats.

Peralisc9001 wrote:You could snipe backrow units with him because he is 50 HP row 2 is his best place imo.

But I don't see any deck where he would be a good replacement for some other card.

And there is nothing to go along with his open and even if there were, he is Lv 3 which is not very good in tight match ups. We have a grim that's like his openskill. It's not being used.

Yes gravitational sphere does the same thing. He is for sure better then the grim out of the same reason Ex fighter pixie is miles better then prayer.But I understand the self agi debuff is 2 sided. It is great if you debuff an open skill agi manipulation with it, but crap if you debuff your faster units. Maybe if your unit ranks up with agi the same turn you play it/ you have agi buff start skills with agi1 (Beltia ) its not an issue. I havent found any agi buff autoskill in gowen. The open is mainly good vs falkow and lawtia.

And no he is not really a replacement for anything cause its a rather new trend in gowen that hasn't been transfered into something like established decks. Also, like I pointed it out in the starting post, he feels like a tech. Probably running 3 copies is not necessary the best idea (but maybe i am wrong).

I've been interested in that card for a long time. He is tanky with a rankup and probably needs it to survive. Does not belong in low level gowen rush. Does not belong in any file where there are rankup units, as he debuffs them with his start. Mid gowen? I would rather be able to use dandan. All around, he's like rasfel. Good on paper but sucks in battle.

Honestly I think EX Dilate is a better card, and I do not think highly of EX Dilate. It's a level higher but the unit you get on the field is so much better, and the open rewards having 2AGI units rather than just making the turn order random.

It's not a card availability thing either, EX Dilate was in a prebuilt.